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anime: AKB0048
Jan. 21st, 2014 09:08 pmIn the real, modern day Japan, AKB48 is a pop group made of of 80-something members, mostly teenaged girls. IN THE FUTURE entertainment has been outlawed because it disturbs people's peace of mind, and the umpteen billionth generation of AKB48's successors, now know as AKB0048, stage outlawed guerrilla concerts, saving the universe through the power of music and friendship.
COMBAT CONCERTS, PEOPLE. COMBAT CONCERTS. (I may have spent about a week yelling COMBAT CONCERTS a lot of twitter very recently. I'm sorry, twitter.) Because they could be attacked at any time for holding illegal concerts, the girls sing and dance on hoverboards, and and their microphones turn into lightsabers. Members of the group (mostly the understudies who haven't become headliners yet) who aren't in the performance fight the evil government's mecha with their own mecha, and if enemy forces break through the lines, the singers just continue one with the concert while fighting, and protecting the audience. IT IS THE BEST. THE ACTUAL BEST.
I mean, seriously, an anime made up of a couple dozen intergalatic warriors who are also an idol group of teenaged girls.
The actual anime is great. There are awkward fanservice moments, but it's all about the girls and their friendships and sometimes their angst-most have lost something because of the government, and while some come from planets where entertainment is allowed and have their family's blessing, the bulk are runaways who may never be able to return to their home planets, and some have parents who are part of the oppressive system. In a nice change of pace there is no OMG BETRAYAL among the girls when things like the latter are revealed.
On the other hand, there are some not-so-great things, like bits of fanservice that are pretty uncomfortable. Then there's the idea of "succession." In AKB48, members are apparently expected to "graduate" once they're in their 20s to make room for younger girls to join the group. In AKB0048, members of the group take on the names of original AKB48 members with whom their souls "resonate." As such, members of the main group, known as "successors," are made up entirely of girls who fill the role of one of the original members. While not all slots are filled at all times, if one of the younger members, known as "understudies," is meant to be a successor for a filled role, she's stuck as an understudy until the current successor graduates, and there's a subplot where it's heavily implied that one of the older girls is depriving one of the younger girls of her chance to move forward. it should be noted,though, that this isn't portrayed as rivalry within the anime itself, and the two girls are very close and openly admire each other, and have something of a mentor/mentee relationship. There's also one episode in which another girl-I believe she's 13 at the time-receives abusive hatemail and ends up thanking the hater for the hatemail because apparently it made her a better member of AB0048. The message is pretty much that all attention from fans is good, no matter how awful the fan may be.
The animation is gorgeous and, unsurprising, there's music in almost every scene and both the dances and fight scenes are well choreographed. Unlike AKB48, I don't think the dances in AKB0048 ever have more than a dozen dancers. Probably someone told an animator that they'd have to animate 80 girls dancing with perfect choreography and they'd all have to look distinct despite wearing almost identical costumes, and the animator promptly had a stroke, and so they decided to trim it down a bit.
Each season is 13 episodes. The first season stands alone and focuses on a new group of understudies joining the band and learning about being futuristic warrior idols, but it also sets the stage for the larger war, and introduces the mystery of several key band members having disappeared in the past by mysterious circumstances. And by "mysterious circumstances," I mean "giant flashes of light mid-concert," and a few characters are somewhat obsessed with that. Season 2 kicks off with an AWESOME episode in which the girls turn a jailbreak into an inspirational concert, but then gets sidetracked for a few episodes by a popularity contest. Which...well, as far as popularity contests go, it was ok, and all, but not exactly why everyone was tuning in. Then it gets back on track and focuses on the mystery of the missing singers and the larger war.
If you're thinking it's all a huge promotion...uhm, yes, it pretty much is. I mean, multpiple episodes have hundreds of people risking death (or imprisonment at the least) to attend an AKB0048 concert, because obviously hearing AKB48's music is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE. But whatever. This is an anime about girls bonding and supporting each other and staging guerrilla combat concerts and fighting mecha while bringing love and joy to the oppressed masses. What more do you want?
COMBAT CONCERTS, PEOPLE. COMBAT CONCERTS. (I may have spent about a week yelling COMBAT CONCERTS a lot of twitter very recently. I'm sorry, twitter.) Because they could be attacked at any time for holding illegal concerts, the girls sing and dance on hoverboards, and and their microphones turn into lightsabers. Members of the group (mostly the understudies who haven't become headliners yet) who aren't in the performance fight the evil government's mecha with their own mecha, and if enemy forces break through the lines, the singers just continue one with the concert while fighting, and protecting the audience. IT IS THE BEST. THE ACTUAL BEST.
I mean, seriously, an anime made up of a couple dozen intergalatic warriors who are also an idol group of teenaged girls.
The actual anime is great. There are awkward fanservice moments, but it's all about the girls and their friendships and sometimes their angst-most have lost something because of the government, and while some come from planets where entertainment is allowed and have their family's blessing, the bulk are runaways who may never be able to return to their home planets, and some have parents who are part of the oppressive system. In a nice change of pace there is no OMG BETRAYAL among the girls when things like the latter are revealed.
On the other hand, there are some not-so-great things, like bits of fanservice that are pretty uncomfortable. Then there's the idea of "succession." In AKB48, members are apparently expected to "graduate" once they're in their 20s to make room for younger girls to join the group. In AKB0048, members of the group take on the names of original AKB48 members with whom their souls "resonate." As such, members of the main group, known as "successors," are made up entirely of girls who fill the role of one of the original members. While not all slots are filled at all times, if one of the younger members, known as "understudies," is meant to be a successor for a filled role, she's stuck as an understudy until the current successor graduates, and there's a subplot where it's heavily implied that one of the older girls is depriving one of the younger girls of her chance to move forward. it should be noted,though, that this isn't portrayed as rivalry within the anime itself, and the two girls are very close and openly admire each other, and have something of a mentor/mentee relationship. There's also one episode in which another girl-I believe she's 13 at the time-receives abusive hatemail and ends up thanking the hater for the hatemail because apparently it made her a better member of AB0048. The message is pretty much that all attention from fans is good, no matter how awful the fan may be.
The animation is gorgeous and, unsurprising, there's music in almost every scene and both the dances and fight scenes are well choreographed. Unlike AKB48, I don't think the dances in AKB0048 ever have more than a dozen dancers. Probably someone told an animator that they'd have to animate 80 girls dancing with perfect choreography and they'd all have to look distinct despite wearing almost identical costumes, and the animator promptly had a stroke, and so they decided to trim it down a bit.
Each season is 13 episodes. The first season stands alone and focuses on a new group of understudies joining the band and learning about being futuristic warrior idols, but it also sets the stage for the larger war, and introduces the mystery of several key band members having disappeared in the past by mysterious circumstances. And by "mysterious circumstances," I mean "giant flashes of light mid-concert," and a few characters are somewhat obsessed with that. Season 2 kicks off with an AWESOME episode in which the girls turn a jailbreak into an inspirational concert, but then gets sidetracked for a few episodes by a popularity contest. Which...well, as far as popularity contests go, it was ok, and all, but not exactly why everyone was tuning in. Then it gets back on track and focuses on the mystery of the missing singers and the larger war.
If you're thinking it's all a huge promotion...uhm, yes, it pretty much is. I mean, multpiple episodes have hundreds of people risking death (or imprisonment at the least) to attend an AKB0048 concert, because obviously hearing AKB48's music is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE. But whatever. This is an anime about girls bonding and supporting each other and staging guerrilla combat concerts and fighting mecha while bringing love and joy to the oppressed masses. What more do you want?